If Wishes Were Horses.....

How do we know current education is in trouble? When we start looking to science fiction movies for guidance. Sure, metaphors are useful communication devices—as are analogies and other figures of speech. And metaphors do influence behavior in framing the debate. See George Lakoff’s 2004 book, “don’t think of an elephant!” for a grounded exposition of this thesis.

The metaphors of “factory” and “cure” are straw-men (another metaphor) contrived by ed “philosophers” (another metaphor) who then quote each other to reify the metaphor. Ask anyone whether they think of schools or what goes on in schools as akin to a factory or a hospital, and I’ll bet you 10 to 1, they’ll say no. If course, you could argue that they don’t know what they’re saying, and that I fall into the same category. Possibly. More likely, you’ve been seeing too many sci fi movies and avoiding the beggars and flying (two more metaphors for you. They're all over the place, not just in grand views of education.)